4 Northern Sentinel, Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Viewpoints
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Time is now to take preventative measures I don’t deny I’m very pro-development, in fact based on my editorials I couldn’t even dream to hide it. But while I do think the impending “boom” for the town is good news, people are also right that there are bad things which come with the good. As a reader pointed out on our Facebook page after we posted the initial story about a June 10 home invasion, which seemed to kick off a series of other events, nothing is 100 per cent positive. There are risks that come with economic growth. You’ve undoubtedly read now that drugs and the drug trade may be a factor in a conflict that began on June 10 when people allegedly forced their way into a home, one in a Halloween costume, used pepper spray before fleeing. Later, a car was found torched and another home had an attempted break-in, police say. Just the initial story should be enough to be shocking, but it becomes scarier for a community when there are repercussions within the criminal segment of the community. People without law, retaliating for other crimes. It’s easy to imagine things could escalate. But that said, so far it’s important to note that it appears the only people directly affected by these incidents seem to be those involved in those circles. The law-abiding majority has been safe, which I think is an important thing to remember before being too worried about these things. But not that we should be soft when these things happen. What is important is not to worry, but to plan. The local RCMP detachment, through circumstance and not of its own plan, will be comparatively low on its officers, as the staff sergeant said during an update to council last month. That being the case, this is the time to be lobbying for a strengthened detachment. The Union of B.C. Municipalities conference is coming up in September, and Christy Clark revealed her new executive committee recently. The town should, if it’s not already, be pushing people like B.C.’s new justice minister to grow our detachment, not just to deal with crime but to help suppress it before things get more hot. While we’re at it, it’s probably a good idea to review how we educate our youth about drugs at school. I trust there is good education happening (The DARE program included) but if drug trade issues are going to be more visible we want to make sure no local kids get caught up in anything. At this stage, prevention is the best policy. Cameron Orr
The imagery of juxtapositions The juxtaposition of two items on one edition of the CBC-TV news last week struck me as humorous. The newscast kicked off with the story of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield announcing his “retirement by Allan Hewitson from public service (the Canadian Space Agency) after ahewitson@telus.net 30 years.” Next was by the Teflon man, Treasury Board President Tony Clement announcing during his highly visible command gig details of fairly draconian changes to on the International Space Station and the public service sick benefits pro- Clement, in just so many other, often gram, allegedly to help lower absen- sleazy, ways. teeism rates in the ranks of public serClement’s most famous foible vants. was to scatter $50 million from the About then, I flash daydream G8-G20 budgets in 2011 willy-nilly about some senior bureaucrat at the to spruce up his riding with expensive space agency asking, “Hey, has any- gazebos and parks for the three-day one seen Hadfield? I haven’t seen him meeting. The G8 was held in his ridfor days. Is he off sick again? Or is he ing, in Huntsville, Ont., but Clement just spaced out?” spread the wealth throughout the reHadfield said, “I’ve decided to re- gion. No real accountable explanation tire from government service after 35 was forthcoming in the subsequent years of serving our country and, gosh, political fallout, by which time, most putting myself in harm’s way,” the for- people were distracted by outrage mer test pilot from Milton, Ont., told over the largest number of Canadian a news conference at the Canadian civilian arrests in history during the Space Agency, south of Montreal. international smooze-fests in Ontario. It occurred to me that these two That fallout was more meaningful, but men have both been in the public eye generally equally ignored by governquite a bit for the past couple of years ment. — Hadfield in so many good ways As an ardent “Question Period”
Under Miscellaneous
viewer, I also see Clement frequently, front and centre, as Conservatives do “the wave,” rising like trained seals to applaud and cheer boringly repeated stone-wall responses by the PM and other ministers to questions and concerns from opposition MPs pursuing some government accountability on Senate expense cheating. I’d love to see details of Hadfield’s public service pension-benefits program, compared to what Tony Clement has coming to him while he cracks down on union absenteeism by others in public service. Which brings me to an interesting e-mail forwarded by a friend last week. This e-mail concerned an Ontario “retiree” who took exception to reported remarks by “Jeff Smith, the Senator from Québec,” who called senior citizens the “greediest generation” as he compared “social security” to a milk cow with over a million teats. What followed in the response was a great rant about the inequity between pension and benefits plans for “ordinary” Canadians compared to Senators and politicians. Continued on page 5
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